A few months ago Wild Oats was bought out by Whole Foods. I have been shopping at what is now Whole Foods for a few years. Over the last year I have really picked up my shopping there, often visiting the nearest location several times a week.
The most frequent item I purchase is a vegetable blend fruit smooth. However, two weeks ago Whole Foods raised the price of a 16 ounce beverage from $4 to $6. This new smoothie price is not nearly as appealing as when it was cheaper, thus it has reduced my intake of these custom made drinks lately. It is still an acceptable price, however.
Of the two Wild Oats/Whole Food locations I have frequented over the years, I have met several store employs who do not eat or buy products from these stores. They just “work” there. One even went so far as to say buying health food was “crazy.” He was a nice person, however.
Well, last week I went to Whole Foods during the early afternoon, which is not my normal shopping time. I mostly shop at night and deal with the second shift crew. Because I visited the store earlier I had to deal with an employee I rarely interact with. She is a nice old woman with many wrinkles who wears a plastic cap over her hair along with a white apron (as the rest of the workers behind the counter do). I ordered a new smoothie this time - one made mostly with juiced spinach and ginger with carrot, papaya and one banana. She found it amusing that I ordered five ounces of spinach juiced with a smile. She asked me why I dont just get vitamin pills because they are cheaper. That statement revealed to me with utmost clarity that she does not buy health food, she is not serious about health, does not eat fruits or vegetables and is ignorant on the subject of nutrition.
The health benefits of eating much leafy greens and fruits is staggering. Furthermore, there are far more chemicals, minerals and nutritional elements to plants and fruits than simply the vitamins they contain.
And so I just smiled at her.
(Notes on spinach: While I do not care much for the taste of spinach, a whopping fist-sized piece of juiced ginger really helps to remove the taste of the icky leafy green. My interest in drinking juiced spinach comes after new research found a muscle-building steroid in it (phytoecdysteroids). [link to study at newscientist.com] Popeye was right all along! Spinach really does build strong muscles! Since I have been working out daily, this fact is of personal interest to me. Human muscle cultures grew 20% faster. Rats fed this spinach steroid chemical were “slightly stronger after a month of injections of this extract. However, about a pound of spinach would have to be eaten daily to obtain the same amount of this steroid. A pound of spinach results in about five ounces of juice. While I do not expect to gain muscle mass from simply drinking this juice once a week if not more, I assume it’s better than not consuming it considering all of the other nutritional qualities of spinach I’ll be receiving.)
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